“Orange Tango” Advert Analysis
English Media coursework - written.
"We'd rather have a bowl of Coco pops" remember that song? This is just one example of
a successful advertising campaign - if the slogan is remembered then so is the product.
A consumer in the world of the twenty first century is very much a victim of the media; the
main vulnerability lies in the campaigns put forward by advertising. Advertising is very
persuasive and develops strong compulsions. Its sole purpose is to influence the public into
choosing the advertiser's product over all the others on the market, although this has proved
harder to do in today's society as we, the purchasers, have become more aware of the way
that they try to manipulate us. To overcome this problem, the advertisers have had to make
their campaigns more sophisticated in very subtle ways.
Advertising is all around us, so much so that many people don't realise that it is there,
although we are all affected by it. For example, think of a major football team, then think
about their shirt. One of the things that people remember about it is the name of the
company on the front - Manchester United are sponsored by "Vodaphone," Arsenal by
"Dreamcast," Chelsea by "Autoglass" and so forth. Also many sports personalities are
paid to wear a product made by the company. One example: most children that are
interested in golf would want a "Nike" baseball cap, as worn by Tiger Woods. This shows
a very successful way to sell the name as parents are besieged by their children wanting to
own the product.
Using famous characters can, however lead to complications. Just recently there has been a
case with the company that makes the "Brylcreem" gel, as they used David Beckham to sell
their product, because many children wanted their hair like his. The problem arose when
David Beckham had all of his hair shaved off, as he had no need for gel anymore, and the
"Brylcreem" campaign folded.
Advertising can be found almost anywhere. Just walking down the street, it's in shop
windows, bus shelters, hoardings and phone boxes. Also the radio is an extremely good
way to advertise as most people listen to the radio at least three or four times a week.
When products are advertised on the radio, as there are no visual aids for people to
remember, advertisers tend to add a jingle at the end. A jingle is like a slogan but it is
edited into a short catchy piece of music so that it will stay in the minds of the public.
Although advertising is good for the company's profit there has to be some control over
what is broadcasted or presented to the public. The Advertising Standards Authority is the
authority that has the control. They see every advert before it goes out and if they don't
think that the advertisement is suitable, they will not allow it to be shown. They also
encourage members of the public to report any adverts they think are offensive, incorrect, or
misleading.
An image is a representation of the personality of the product. Every product on the market
has an image. One outstanding example of this is the advert for the "Levi twist jeans. " This
has a strong sexual image, as the advert shows a young, beautiful, sexy lady who has
recently got out of her bed where she has left a young, good-looking man sleeping. The
actor and actress used in the advert help to create the image of the product, and give the
message that wearing these particular jeans can improve your social life. It is especially
effective because it appeals to both sexes. The advertisers hope that the public will buy their
product because they think it will make them become like the actor in the advert. This is why
many companies use aspirational figures in their advertisements. These are people we are
supposed to aspire to be like, or 'become' in some way. Also the story and the setting for
the advert plays a big part in conveying an image, as certain places give certain images. A
loud and busy night club would put forward a fun-loving, young and naughty image, whereas
a quiet office with efficient looking professional people in, would give a sophisticated,
independent and intelligent image.
The image is connected to the ...
This is a preview of the whole essay
many companies use aspirational figures in their advertisements. These are people we are
supposed to aspire to be like, or 'become' in some way. Also the story and the setting for
the advert plays a big part in conveying an image, as certain places give certain images. A
loud and busy night club would put forward a fun-loving, young and naughty image, whereas
a quiet office with efficient looking professional people in, would give a sophisticated,
independent and intelligent image.
The image is connected to the target audience of the product in many different ways. The
characters in the advertisement must be someone who the target audience can relate to,
whether that is someone of the same age, or someone who the age group would admire or
look up to. Also the setting of the advertisement connects to the target audience of the
product. If the target audience was 10-15 year olds it could be staged in a school, as all
children in the age range would attend a school so they could relate to this. On the other
hand if the target audience was affluent thirty year olds the advert could be set in a night
club or an exotic holiday location, as they would probably be able to relate to this.
One recent advertising campaign that has proved to be very successful was the adverts for
the "Orange Tango." These particular adverts were aimed at young children to teenagers,
aged around seven to fourteen. The advert was shown in the afternoon and early evening
when most young people are watching television. The way the advert was intended to
appeal to young people was shown by the way that in the television campaign the
advertisers used action replays and sporty voice overs to explain what was going on. Tango
used this effect as many children in their target audience would enjoy playing and watching
sport. Also the way that the tango man ran around like a little child helped to appeal to the
target audience, as it appeals to their sense of humour. A man covered in orange paint
running around slapping people, is somewhat strange and not an everyday occurrence.
Because it is so strange, and very different to normal adult behaviour, the children think it is
funny.
The adverts for the "Orange Tango" created a naughty, young and unpredictable image for
the product. They did this in the way that they used the Tango man as a little child. He was
quite naughty to behave in the way that he did. Also as the Tango man was painted orange
it was like he was a character out of a cartoon, which appeals to young children. The
orange colour also made the man stand out , and helped promote the product, which was
orange flavoured. In the adverts there is much comedy slapstick involved, which children
can relate to as they find play fighting funny. Sometimes, children like to act out what they
have seen in an advert and copy what is staged, which is the desired effect as this means the
advert is being remembered and therefore so is the product. There was also a very
unpredictable element to the adverts. In the first of their adverts they had the Tango man
running up to a stranger in the street and slapping him on both cheeks. This had an
unexpected effect on the public as children took the advert as an example and slapped their
own friends and family. Because of the effect that the adverts were having there were many
complaints made to the Advertising Standards Authority and the advert was banned from
television. The advertisers for "Orange Tango" then changed the advert and instead of the
Tango man slapping the stranger he kissed him.
The effect that the advert had on the public was good for the "Tango" company in two
ways. Firstly, they got to bring the element of surprise and unpredictability into the adverts,
and it also showed that the public did actually take notice of the advert, so if they were
remembering the events which took place in the advert they were obviously taking in the
name of the product. The slogan also proved to be very successful as many members of the
public could remember the very bold slogan "You know when you've been tangoed!"
Although the adverts were aimed at youngsters, a surprising bonus for the manufacturers
was that the adverts also appealed to older people because the advert was so unusual.
Another very successful advert for Tango was the one for "Blackcurrant Tango." The
target audience for this advert was very different to those for the "Orange Tango." The
"Orange Tango" adverts were aimed at young children, whereas the advert for the
"Blackcurrant Tango" was aimed at teenagers to young adults. There are many points to
back up the fact that there is a difference in the age for the target audience. In the "Orange
Tango" adverts, they were very childish, and the best way to explain the "Blackcurrant
Tango" adverts would be patriotic; which is associated more with adults.
The advert put forward an aggressive, powerful and almost jingoistic image. They did this
by the dramatic change in mood throughout the advert. At the start of the advert it is a very
calm scene with Ray Gardner, the spokesperson for Tango in his office reading a letter from
a foreign exchange student called Sebastien Loyes, who has said he did not enjoy
"Blackcurrant Tango" as much as previous flavours. The fact that Ray Gardner uses his full
name shows he is showing some respect towards the boy, although his attitude towards him
varies wildly towards the end of the advert. Gardner then goes on to say that he can only
apologize to the boy, as if he is wrong. He comments that they have done all they can to
provide "satisfaction for all Tango drinkers, even if you're only visiting our great nation," the
way that he added "great nation" into his speech shows he is starting to become slightly
patriotic. The use of "you're only visiting" also implies the 'foreigner' is inferior to the British
people. This starts to change the tone of the advert.
Ray Gardner says later on in the advert "you're an exchange student aren't you Sebastien?"
There is a definite change in the tone of his voice at this point. He becomes more
aggressive, and becomes fairly insulting by stereotyping the French as "all hair gel and fancy
loafers." By this time Ray Gardner has begun to remove his clothes revealing that he is
wearing a pair of purple boxing shorts. He has also moved from the office to outside in the
car park. He then walks past a "Blackcurrant Tango" lorry and the scene changes from the
car park to a field, which in the end is revealed to be the top of the white cliffs of Dover. He
then becomes very defensive towards "Blackcurrant Tango" commenting:
"You're one dissenting voice in a billion, Johnny French, - you're that! (holding up a small
gap between his thumb an index finger)" At this point he has dropped the boy's name and
become very anti-French. By saying the boy is "one dissenting voice in a billion", this
implies the boy is odd, or abnormal for not liking Tango, and indicates Tango is enjoyed by
huge numbers of people. In the closing scene of the advert there are a lot of things going on.
Ray Gardner jumps into a boxing ring on the edge of the white cliffs of Dover, challenging all
French people. There are hundreds of extras running carrying "Blackcurrant Tango" flags to
support Ray Gardner around the boxing ring. There are also three Harrier Jets lifting off
behind the crowd. The music plays a big part in the advert, at the beginning the music is
very calm, but after the point where the spokesman walks past the "Blackcurrant Tango"
lorry, the music becomes very dramatic. There are very bold colours used in the advert,
and this indicates a sense of power. The end of the advert is highly charged and is an
aggressive and dramatic climax to the advert. This leaves us with the image of Ray Gardner
challenging the whole world to a fight.
I think this advert was effective because it appealed to most patriotic British people, at a
time when it is almost considered wrong to stick up for your country. Also, the way the
scene changes from a conventional one to the surreal boxing match is again very unusual,
and grabs the attention. The use of humour in both adverts helps them to stick in people's
memories, and so helps promote the product.
In my own advertising campaign my partner and I decided to promote a perfume aimed at
teenage girls. We chose to give it a striking image and worked with the words sexy, stylish,
young and naughty.
We decided to make our perfume very different from all the others on the market, so we
created five individual scents and bottled them individually. We then analyzed the product
and decided that it would be too difficult to advertise the different bottles individually, so we
made the containers smaller and so they interlocked with each other to make one big bottle.
We though this would be a better product than our initial idea.
When we had decided on this product we then began to think of ways to advertise it. We
came up with many ideas but we agreed that the best way to sell the perfume would be to
give each of the different scents different personalities. To make the product even more
versatile we decided to add a petri dish as a stand for the stack of bottles, so that the
perfumes could be mixed together. Then came the problem of naming the product. We had
a few ideas in mind, and then finally chose the name "Girls." We thought that we could put
one letter from the word an each of the individual bottles. We had the idea of naming each
of the bottles as a different scent, and we could have the name of the scent beginning with
the letter printed on the bottle. This is what we came up with. G = Groovy, I = Intelligent,
R = Raunchy, L = Love, and S = Stylish. Then this portrayed the image that you would
then have the personality of the perfume. The idea of getting five different perfumes together
at a reasonable price would appeal to teenagers on a limited budget.
As the product was aimed at quite a young audience, we decided that we would make the
bottle out of aluminum, as it would be easier to have colours painted onto the side of the
bottle. We had other thoughts of making the bottle out of glass, but decided against it as it
would be more expensive to manufacture, therefore the sale price would be more. Glass is
also often associated with perfumes for older ladies, and we wanted a young, trendy image.
Our initial ideas for the television advert was to make it quite sexual and aim it at young
adults. However, we decided that to widen the appeal of our product (and therefore
hopefully increase the sales), we could aim it at teenagers as well, by toning down the
sexuality in the advert. Our first advert revolved around a young, trendy couple in bed ,
conveying the sexuality. Our second advert consisted of a girl getting herself ready to go out
to a night club. In the first frame of the advert there is a bottle of the perfume to the right of
the screen in focus and to the back of the screen a girl who has just got out of the shower
out of focus. This shows that the perfume is the most important part of the advert. It then
goes on to sound effects of her getting ready - Zips being done up, make up boxes opening
and closing, and a hairdryer. She applies some of the perfume and is transformed into a well
known character, often regarded as a sex-symbol. This shows that it was the perfume that
made the difference and not the effort put in before. She goes to a night club and all the
boys stare at her, and all the girls are jealous. The girl arrives home at two in the morning
suggesting the 'racy' part of the image.
There are two female characters used in the advert, Felicity Shagwell (Austin Powers II -
The Spy Who Shagged Me) and Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy The Vampire Slayer). We
have chosen these characters as they are role models for the girls in the age range. The
setting of a house and a nightclub is very appealing to the target audience as they would
enjoy going out to a nightclub. The main song used in the advert is "Girls just wanna have
fun" by Cyndi Lauper, as this is a very up-beat song. It also gives the message that by
using this perfume, girls are guaranteed to have a good night out.
The message we wanted to get across was that girls can be who ever they want to be, as
many girls nowadays are very worried about their appearance, and take examples from
super models and feel pressurized into going on diets. Our advert was also trying to stop
this from happening as well as to promote the product.
I think that overall our advertising campaign would be quite successful, as it is very colourful
and bold so it would be noticed. Similar products on the market are "Impulse" body
sprays. These also create different images with different bottles of spray, but as our perfume
consists of five different flavors in one bottle, it is more versatile than the "Impulse" sprays.
The "Impulse" campaign also focused on the effect the perfume would have on the men
nearby, whilst our product would effect the wearer, making them feel good about
themselves.
I feel that after studying advertising for quite some time I have learnt quite a lot from it.
Before we looked at this topic I didn't know how manipulative advertisers can be, and I
was very much a victim of their campaigns. I have been taught to decode the adverts and
understand the way in which the advertisers persuade us into buying the product. Taking a
poster advert as an example, there has been a lot of time and effort put into the advert and
nothing is there by accident. Every aspect of the poster has been thought through and has a
reason for being there. For example, - the writing - how big or small it is, how much there
is, what colour and font its in is all designed to give maximum impact. The position of the
writing, the language used, and the use of slogans have all been carefully planned. The
models - old or young, big or small, male or female, famous or not, they have been chosen
so that they appeal to a very specific audience. The background or setting - where and
why, glamorous or uninviting, busy or sparse, all this is designed to give a particular
message. For a poster briefly glimpsed from the top of a bus or for a thirty second
commercial between T.V programmes, there has been a lot of thought, time and effort by a
huge team put into producing it.
By Kate Kirwan, 10 Lystra.
